United States President Donald Trump said on Friday that he is launching the “largest ever” set of sanctions against North Korea, Reuters reported. Trump made the statement while reading excerpts of a speech he is scheduled to give on Friday.
The US president said the Treasury Department would soon take action to further cut off sources of fuel and revenue that Pyongyang uses to fund its nuclear weapons programme and sustain its military expenditure. Trump said the action would target over 50 vessels, shipping companies, and trade businesses that are assisting North Korea in evading sanctions.
The new sanctions will be announced at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Maryland, CNN reported. Trump’s announcement comes while his daughter and advisor Ivanka Trump is in South Korea for the last few days of the 2018 Winter Olympics.
In January, the United States had imposed sanctions on six North Korean ships, nine companies and 16 individuals that it claimed supported Pyongyang’s weapons of mass destruction programmes and other illicit businesses. The US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctioned the North Korean Ministry of Crude Oil Industry too.
Washington also sanctioned two Chinese groups, Beijing Chengxing Trading Co and Dandong Jinxiang Trade, for allegedly exporting goods to North Korean firms that were included on the UN sanctions list. Under the sanctions, Americans are banned from any transfers or dealings with the ships or groups.
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